Jiang Ye was somewhat disappointed by the reward; she had thought it would be food or some kind of supernatural ability, especially since the original host had made enemies everywhere and might kick the bucket at any moment.
Sigh…
On second thought, though, she decided that ten minutes of bathing time wasn’t bad either—it was genuinely something she needed.
Jiang Ye quickly consoled herself, happily planning to have a good wash later that evening.
Zhou Yan felt a sudden drop in weight on his back as a woman’s body heat enveloped him. His gaze turned cold, and he stood up steadily, grabbing his own belt with both hands while keeping a deliberate, wide distance from her delicate thighs.
A pair of soft arms wrapped around his neck.
It was Jiang Ye.
“Let go!”
“Zhou Yan, your waist is too thick, and my legs won’t hold securely. I have to use my arms for extra insurance.”
Zhou Yan lowered his head and glanced down at the long legs tightly wrapped around his waist. In the movement, her skirt rode up, exposing her fair skin.
Wasn’t this plenty secure?!
Catching himself thinking that, he froze for a second before his expression darkened once again.
“Talk any more nonsense and you can get down and walk yourself!”
No sound came from behind him.
Zhou Yan paused, his furrowed brows deepening.
Right then, cool and soft skin pressed against his ear. Realizing what it was, his entire body stiffened, accompanied by a soft, wronged voice right beside his ear.
“Got it, don’t snap at me.”
Jiang Ye had spoken right against his ear, purposely blowing a puff of air onto his reddened earlobe.
Zhou Yan gritted his back teeth, fighting down the urge to dump her right then and there, and lifted his foot to walk away.
He didn’t realize that in this short span of time, he had felt more emotional turbulence regarding Jiang Ye than in the previous two months combined.
Jiang Ye smiled triumphantly.
She wasn’t afraid of him being angry; she was only afraid of him having no reaction at all.
Lin Hui and the others lagged a step behind, watching the intimately posed pair in front of them. Lin Hui’s back teeth were practically about to grind to dust.
“Brother Yan, you’re still injured. Let Wulin carry her.”
The named Wulin felt his dark cheeks flush uncontrollably.
“Brother Yan, let me do it.”
Zhou Yan was younger than him, but in the apocalypse, strength ruled. He called him “Brother” with complete and utter sincerity.
With that, Wulin took a large stride forward, catching up to the two of them.
Although Jiang Ye was vicious, she was pretty—she shared the exact same face as Jiang Xing, so carrying her wasn’t a bad deal either.
Jiang Ye struggled frantically.
“No, no, no!”
Zhou Yan’s neck tightened so much it almost choked the life out of him.
He ground out through his teeth, “Let go.”
Instead of letting go, Jiang Ye tightened her grip even further.
“I have zero superpowers and zero stamina. If I end up like before, with the lot of you ability-users scheming to murder an ordinary person like me, what am I supposed to do?!”
The group looked somewhat unnatural at her words. Although there had been reasons behind what happened earlier, hearing it put so bluntly by her made them look rather underhanded.
Wulin, having been rejected, awkwardly rubbed his nose and slowed his pace.
Zhou Yan was one of those who wasn’t entirely above board either—even though he hadn’t participated, he had stood by and watched.
His breath rose and fell heavily. He felt like he was either going to be choked to death by Jiang Ye or infuriated to death by her.
Jiang Ye cast a covert glance backward. Honestly, anyone with eyes could tell who she was looking at.
Wulin and the others secretly glanced at Lin Hui, whose face had pulled into a face as long as a donkey’s.
Then they heard Lin Hui snap, throwing a petty and arrogant fit.
“What if some ugly, filthy somebody gets jealous and tries to poison me or pull something? It’s not like it hasn’t happened before—either I trip, or I get soaked in water, or I get chased by zombies. It’s not like I don’t know who’s behind the sabotage! Now that Zhou Yan is here, who dares hurt me again!”
The ‘ugly, filthy somebody,’ Lin Hui, now had a complexion as unsightly as a zombie’s.
Pui, pui, pui!
Wasn’t it clearly her who kept causing trouble for them with her stupid behavior first, time and time again?!
Lin Hui’s face flushed red then turned pitch black. She cast a humiliated, sidelong glance at Zhou Yan, only to find that he had completely ignored her, causing her eye rims to turn red.
After finishing her output of uninterrupted insults, Jiang Ye shamelessly added one more line: “Zhou Yan will protect me!”
With that, she leaned in close to Zhou Yan and asked with a cheeky grin, “Right?”
Protection or not didn’t matter; the whole point was just to disgust everyone present.
“…Let go…”
Only then did Jiang Ye notice Zhou Yan’s flushed face. Startled, she quickly loosened her grip.
Zhou Yan couldn’t afford to have anything happen to him.
If he kicked the bucket, how was she going to get her reward?!
Zhou Yan took a deep breath, casting an irritated glare at the woman who now looked somewhat frightened.
I should have just let those guys kill her back then!
Sensing what he was thinking, Jiang Ye rolled her eyes, stretched out a small hand to rest lightly on the pulsing vein at the side of his neck, and massaged it gently in an ambiguous, flirtatious manner.
“Are you still uncomfortable?”
Inwardly, she was screaming for the system.
“System, System! Does me touching his neck count as intimate contact?”
[……]
“System, are you there?”
[……]
After getting no reply for a long while, Jiang Ye felt a little disappointed. Turns out proactive moves didn’t count; only system-assigned ones did.
Feeling the meddling little hand on his neck and suffering from an excess of fury, Zhou Yan gritted his teeth and spat out, “Make one more petty move and I’ll kill you.”
And this “kill” didn’t carry any romantic undertones whatsoever.
He meant genuinely kill her.
Jiang Ye promptly withdrew her hand and obediently slumped back onto his back.
Since there was no reward to be had, why bother exhausting herself? She might as well honestly enjoy being carried by her human rickshaw.
The surrounding zombies that occasionally crossed their path were quickly cleared away by Lin Hui, Wulin, and the others.
Enjoying the evening breeze and the orange-tinted sunset on the horizon—aside from the occasional dark bloodstains and heads blown to pieces—it was actually quite pleasant.
Looking at the miserable-looking group trailing behind her, she couldn’t help letting out a long sigh.
Sigh~
She really was born with a life of luxury.
Lin Hui wore a stinking expression. Watching Jiang Ye acting as if she were on a high-class young lady’s outing, she was so angry she wanted to jab her with a superpower right then and there.
Damn it, what kind of look was that?!
Hearing the sigh by his ear, Zhou Yan felt an inexplicable emotion well up in his chest.
After a moment, he let out a sigh of his own.
For Jiang Xing’s sake, I’ll just bear with it a little longer.
Before dark, the group found a gas station lounge. It was relatively clean—at least there were no corpses or zombies inside, saving them a lot of trouble.
They tightly shut the doors and windows, drew the blackout curtains and rolling doors, and tried turning on the lights, pleasantly surprised to find that the electricity still worked.
Two months into the apocalypse, electricity, food, and water sources were becoming increasingly scarce, and such predicaments were only bound to worsen.
The apocalyptic night was fraught with danger. Aside from infected zombies, there were many mutated animals. People were already highly strung during the day, and nighttime was when they let down their guard the most—making it prime hunting time for nocturnal mutated beasts to launch stealth attacks.
Zhou Yan carefully inspected the room, making sure all doors and windows were securely closed. Even the narrow holes of the ventilation shafts and air conditioning ducts were plugged up with scraps.
He didn’t want to get bitten by a mutated rat or bat while sleeping at night.
After the intense battle earlier that day, everyone was physically and mentally exhausted. The unusual stillness of their surroundings now only amplified that fatigue.
Lin Hui pulled the remaining food out of her bag to divide among the group. There were six people, but she only divided it into five portions.
Taking the food, the group began to eat.
The small lounge was filled with the scent of food and the sound of chewing.
Jiang Ye stared longingly as the food passed right by her. Her stomach growled hungrily; according to her memories, the original host hadn’t eaten in a long time.
She stretched out her hand and demanded as a matter of course, “Where’s mine?”
Lin Hui shot her a disgusted look, casually opened the bread in her hand, took a bite, and smacked her lips loudly on purpose.
Only after watching the other person swallow hard with craving did she speak up.
“Why should someone who doesn’t do any work get to eat? We found these provisions with great difficulty. If you want to eat, you earn it through labor.”
Lin Hui had said these exact words to the original host many times before.
Yet, after laboring, the original host basically never received any food; it was only when she flew into a rage out of frustration that she would resort to grabbing it by force.